Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Government Services and the Digital Economy) Share this | Hansard source

Australians are facing a cost-of-living crisis. They see it every day in higher mortgage repayments, higher power bills, higher food prices, higher rents—everything is going up. This is the exact opposite of what the Prime Minister repeatedly promised Australians at the last election. We all remember the bold promises: lowering household and business energy bills by $275. We were told, 'Labor has real, lasting plans for cheaper electricity and cheaper mortgages.' We were told Australians would be better off under a Labor government. The Prime Minister personally promised his $275 power bill cut not once, not twice, not five times, not ten times. Was it thirty times? Was it fifty times? It was 97 times. It was personally promised 97 times by the Prime Minister. But, when we ask him about it now, those bold promises are replaced with weasel words, with equivocation, with obfuscation and with evasion. The simple fact is that the Prime Minister promised cost-of-living relief during the election, but life is only getting harder for Australians under this Labor government—even though, bizarrely, last week the Prime Minster claimed it's been a pretty good 10 months. Most Australians would have responded to that claim with incredulity.

Let's have a look at what has happened when it comes to mortgages. There have been nine straight interest rate rises on this government's watch as inflation has surged. A family with a typical mortgage of $750,000 is now paying $1,700 a month more than they were when rates began rising last year. That is an extra $20,000 a year that a typical Australian family now needs to find. More than 800,000 Australian households will be moved off fixed mortgage rates onto variable rates this year. That will put even more pressure on already tight budgets.

When the Prime Minister was directly asked about the quote, the comment, the promise, the undertaking—'Labor has real lasting plans for cheaper mortgages'—he couldn't scuttle away quickly enough. What do the facts tell us, as opposed to the misleading rhetoric from the Prime Minister? Research from Roy Morgan shows that an estimated 1.19 million mortgage holders were at risk of mortgage stress in the three months to January 2023. Just today, the NAB reports that more households are reporting financial difficulties. Australian families are 'starting to feel the pinch and are getting more worried about their financial future'. What does the Westpac-Melbourne Institute Consumer Sentiment Index say? 'Consumer sentiment holds near 30-year lows.'

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